Fun fact: Mohg is actually the one who kidnapped Miquella, seeking to use the Empyrean blood of his half-brother to fashion his own dynasty of gods, possibly even having been accidently bewitched by Miquella's enchanting aura. His palace of blood lays directly below Caelid... Radahn's domain, and the sight where Radahn and Malenia had their fateful battle, so there's a common theory that Malenia knew WHERE Miquella was, but not who took him, bringing her into conflict with her stepbrother and ultimately leading to the fate of everyone involved. And where better for a Lord of Blood to build his palace than under a warzone, where it can all trickle down and empower him? It's my theory that Mohg is one of the biggest masterminds in the whole story, who often goes overlooked in analysis of the greater events of the story.
Malenia is considered the toughest boss because she heals herself every time she hits you, and as you saw, she has one attack that can hit you like 12 times in about 4 seconds.
@@DefinitelyNotDefinitiveGames you should react to her boss fight...also for reference, I've not beaten her yet and I've fought her over at least 20 times maybe even thirty. And I don't always get her down below half health
@@jacthing1 Took me about 50~ to beat her my first time. What helped me was that I never hyperfocused on beating her, I mean, I was never going at it full brute force trying to win at any cost. I just wanted to learn how to deal with her moves, so dying never frustrated me. And boy, let me tell ya, it's such a rush when you can consistently dodge Waterfowl Dance. At some point it legit becomes a choreography, I bet that's how Let Me Solo Her must feel.
One thing I really like about from software's characters is that rarely do we get characters that are pure good or pure evil. The majority of characters are morally grey and have their own faults and redeeming qualities. However when we do get pure evil villians in souls games, they're really damn good! Like Pontiff Sulyvahn from dark souls or Mohg in elden ring.
@@moonrabbit2334 pontiff was hard, but after ER and it's bosses, he was a piece of cake As for Mohg, I love the fight. I think he's one of the very few fights where delayed attacks make sense, because instead of seeming like the boss is just holding his attack, Mohg looks like he's having a hard time swinging that massive weapon.
@@1asts1eep can’t name a single positive thing Moghs done. Built a dynasty around killing Maidens and other tarnished, kidnapped Miquella and ditched the golden order which may or may not be evil depending on how you look at it
Given that George R.R Martin wrote the lore of the game with director Hidetaka Miyazaki, the idea of a Game of Thrones-style adaptation is an interesting one. Just imagine a medieval/mythological socio-political thriller with these living legends, covering the events from the coronation of Marika, through the Shattering, right up to the summoning of the Tarnished that begins the game. It does conflict with the environmental storytelling that gives these games their identity, but of all the games FromSoftware has gifted us, Elden Ring might be easiest to adapt (that or Sekiro). Like how Fire and Blood exists in relation to A Song of Ice and Fire.
@Definitely Not Definitive - Games It's quite possible. Soulsborne is known for having so many multi-layered characters reminiscent of those in Martin's work, so for such an ambitious project (their first open world game), working with a renowned author of similar style is a logical choice that worked so well.
If an adaptation were really to take place BEFORE the events of the game, as you said, from the coronation to the Shattering, I don't see the obvious lack of enviromental storytelling being a problem. Since it's telling something we didn't actually see it happening and events that surely holds the interest of everyone who played the game, that would be fantastic. However, if they'd opt to adapt the the main journey of from the game, with the Tarnished being the protagonist, I don't see how it could work and we'd feel the lack of enviromental storytelling much more.
I enjoyed Dark Souls and Elden Ring for the exploration, challenge and a vague "weird factor", but I could never connect with the story at all because the presentation was so scattered and impersonal. Seeing an attempted adaptation in a non-interactive medium would be interesting, even if I probably wouldn't enjoy it.
@i That is a good point. I think it's the enduring mysteries (e.g. Miquella, the exact nature of Marika-Radagon's duality) in some of the lore that made me feel like an adaptation would be a challenge, but imagination is a powerful thing in the right direction, and it's still possible, even best, to leave some things a mystery while telling a strong narrative.
Malenia considers Miquela to be the most fearsome of demi-gods. If there's a DLC where we get to fight him, I would be terrified of what that would be like.
@@fakeblue8985 And near impossible, considering his curse. That said, it'd be interesting to see how they'd impliment his charisma into his boss fight.
@@Danganraptor It would almost certainly never happen, although he did almost break the curse (just take a look at the size of him in the egg) and I'd assume that the whole "charisma" thing would probably be something to prevent the player from just getting up in his face and absolutely wailing on him, considering that it's an aura he exudes
I always love Beth's takes on these things. i completely agree, Miyazaki just has a way of making these characters so incredibly interesting through literally just backstory and item descriptions. Miquella is definitely my favorite. to me it seems like he was "the guy" to fix everythinh before he got kidnapped by Mohg
Ranni and Marika are two of the most interesting characters fromsoft has ever created. They're both so entrenched in conspiracy and plotting that most of many major plot points can be linked directly to one or even both of them. Can't wait to see you check out more!
Radahn is cool, but i gotta love the tragedy of Morgott and Malenia. Honestly there aint a bad one in the line up save maybe Rykard (although he's still entertaining)
*LONG POST WARNING* Ranni is my favorite of the demigods in Elden Ring (followed by Malenia, because I am also an older sibling), and her ending is perhaps the only ending that can be described as the "good" ending in Elden Ring (the others are either kind of anticlimactic or just plain evil). Ranni's quest involves the player choosing to enter her service to help her achieve her destiny, which involves severing her connection to the Greater Will and freeing her from its influence. That's why she placed her soul into the body of a doll and had her body killed, so her actions would be entirely her own. Part of this quest has you traveling with the doll that contains Ranni's soul, and you learn that she actually cares deeply for the people around her, mainly Blaidd (basically her bodyguard) and Iji (the troll blacksmith at 12:20), but she feels like she's being forced to walk this path alone. That is, until she meets you. At the end of her quest line, Ranni has successfully killed her own set of Two Fingers (every demigod has one) and freed herself of the Greater Will's control. In a secret bit of dialogue (that was actually mistranslated from Japanese, so here's the true meaning), she says that her plan is to free The Lands Between from the influence of all the Outer Gods, creating a new Age of Stars that will eventually allow mortals to choose their own fate rather than be at the mercy of an Outer God. After finishing the game, Ranni proclaims that she's going on a thousand-year voyage across the stars, and she invites you to come with her, saying, "Well then. Shall we? My fair consort eternal." But if you experience that secret dialogue, she will instead say, "Let us go together. My dear consort eternal." In the end, Ranni no longer is forced to walk this path alone. She will set the world free from the gods and embark on a voyage across the stars with the man/woman she loves (at least, if you interpret it that way, which I do). So, yeah. This was my super long way of describing how the best ending in Elden Ring is the one where you marry a witch, banish the gods from the world, and go on a voyage through space. If you actually stuck around, thank you for taking the time to read this! It means a lot!
@@greekjohn1998 the entire circumstances of that are unclear, she absolutely did set it up but there are plenty of theories that marika was behind all that, and if the reading is that she is trying to rid the lands between of the influence of outer gods then it could have all been a part of her plan to eventually exile the greater will, it kind of depends on lots of other context which can be viewed in v different ways, i think ranni is just extremely pragmatic and wants freedom for all things at any cost, even if that cost is killing her brother and causing the deathblight
@@willowhealy453 Well, she does want freedom but for herself only from the greater will, she wants to have the stars and moon to rule maybe with her as a God, quite different than having no outer gods influence. Miquela is the one who wants the no outer gods influence. As for Marika, it's only implied, but I think that theory does have a strong foundation. But we need more lore on Marika to know for certain.
@@greekjohn1998 undeath was a side effect of ranni's plans. it only caused some to suffer if their revival got corrupted. everyone graced by the erdtree is technically immortal, as their souls are bound and they will revive due to the erdtree. with the destruction of the erdtree, those who live in death are also freed, and ranni gets to banish the golden outer god
The names of the demigods sort of follow a system referring to their parentage. All the children born from Radagon and Rennala have names starting with R, so Ranni, Radahn, and Rykard. The ones of the "true" Golden Lineage born from Marika and Godfrey have "God" in their names. He only talked about Godwyn in this video, but there is also some later decendants called Godefroy and Godrick. The M names are a bit more muddled. They're split between the husbands. Mohg and Morgott being Marika and Godfreys children, while Miquella and Malenia are Marika and Radagons children. I like all the demigods and the lore surrounding them, but as someone who has been diving deep in it for a while I think Miquella is the most intriguing to me simply because he is the most mysterious at this moment. I suspect we'll get more of him in an upcoming DLC since he's the only demigod we haven't met. Godwyn is very interesting to me for the same reason, but we know how his story has kind of settled him as a god of death after what happend during the shattering. Godwyn and Miquella have some interesting connections to each other actually despite having different fathers. Miquella refers to Godwyn as his most beloved brother in the description of a golden sword. The story there also involves Ranni the Carian Princess alot since she kind of killed Godwyns soul in order to let her own flesh die while her soul remains. Thats why Rannis body is a blue doll, thats the vessel of her soul after she had her own flesh killed in order to escape the influence of the Golden Order. Godwyn died the opposite death as a result of this, his body lived on while his soul perished, turning him into some malformed representation of unnatural death which spreads the death blight throughout the lands. In every corner of the Lands Between you can find the corruption of black roots surrounding stangant water. This is what causes the undead to rise in all the crypts and graveyards. Miquella is trying to help his half brother Godwyn die a true death so that the Lands Between can be saved from the spreading blight, just like he's trying to halt his sisters Scarlet Rot so that she might live without turning everything into a rotten hellhole where only insectoid creatures may survive. Miquella was doing alot of good things apparently, until he was kidnapped by his other half brother Mohg. Mohg is the omen brother who embraced his cursed blood. His relationship with Miquella is a weird and creepy one, because he wants to make Miquella the new god, but he wants to make sure he himself can be his consort so that he can enforce an Age of Blood in service of his blood god called the Formless Mother. Miquella is seen as a perfect match for this since Miquella is not only cursed with eternal youth, but he is also kind of blessed with abundance. Like Vaati mentioned, Miquella watered his great tree with his own blood, he could do that because he apparently has endlessly flowing blood. His statues are depicted with thick veins on his arms to represent this. But thats perfect for a crazy guy who worships bloodloss. Thats the thing about the Formless Mother, she doesn't care about blood alone, she specifically rewards bloodloss. So Mohg kidnapped Miquella before Miquella could do all the good things he intended to do. Ever since then Mohg has rested inside the blood of Miquella whos inside his cocoon, it looks kinda like a silk moth cocoon. We haven't seen or heard from Miquella after that since we the player draw Mohg out of there and kill him. Miquella might be very different from how he once was if we meet him in a DLC. Miquellas imagry seems to reference the manga Berserk a bit, specifically the character Griffith. But if thats the character they took inspiration from when writing Miquellas story then he definately won't be a good dude when he finally hatches from his cocoon. Regarding the Vaati videos, the upcoming ones are my favorites. This one and the previous one are more like history books, while the next ones are more hyperfocused and narrative driven. Speciically "The Warrior Within", "The Lord of the Frenzied Flame", "The Blessing of Despair", and his newest one about the mages like the Carians called "The Lore of the Elden Ring's Cosmic Sorcerers".
Slight clarification (I won't go so far as to say correction, I think it just wasn't said clearly)-Godefroy and Godrick were in fact most likely descendants of Godwyn, not direct children of Godfrey and Marika.
Thanks so much for all this info and for helping us with the names as well. 😀 Will be cool to see the next videos if they have more of a narrative feel to them 🙂
Radahn is a true Chad. When you fight him you can summon 6 NPCs and do so unlimited. He’s fighting all these people while using gravity magic to hold back the starts WHILE using gravity magic to hold his horse up, WHILE ALSO being crazy. Fighting him in his prime would be impossible
The theory that Melina is possibly Ranni is a cool one as well. They both have their eyes closed, Ranni having a "twin" that matches Melina. Both are the only ones familiar with Torrent also. Some believe that similar to Radagon and Marika being the same person, Melina and Ranni are also the same.
Isn't Melina also Marika, or at least partly? - i.e. the offspring of her and Radagon Edit: I watched the video, didn't expect it to be mentioned in this one
I think perhaps not her twin, but her reflection. If Ranni is the Dark Moon, icy and cold. Melina is the Sun, she is the kindling, the inferno. And that’s why she hunts you in the Frenzied Flame ending
I kinda believe that too because when you first meet Ranni, she requests to see Torrent. Seeing how he stood by Melina (who could be Ranni's former master who influenced Ranni's current puppet), it would make sense that Ranni would request this to ensure that her interactions are with approved/accredited people (being you, the tarnished accredited by torrents trust)
For names you can see it as almost a puzzle, one that has a learning curve but once you get, it's easy. You've got the G & M Family, also known as the golden lineage. Godfrey (The Chad Dad) Marika (Goddess Dearest) Godwyn (How to train your dragon) (Godefrey and Godrick are also members of this lineage but more so decendents, so lesser gods than truly demigods, likely from the naming convention descendants of Godwyn) You got the R family. Radagon (Pre-fusion of Marika, Daddy) Rennala (Mommy, Put all her stats into Int and yet still couldn't see that boy was no good for her.) Ranni (Waifu bait simulator, tricking fools to her ending one copy of elden ring at a time for her darkmoon god.) Rykard(Fiercest contender to most screwed individual in the game with Mohg. He also likes snakes and blasphemy, and is a real family man.) Radahn (Scourge of the stars, the Red Lion, lover of scrawny horses and bestest of bois) Then you've got the Empyrean children of R and M Marika Radagon Malenia(Rot Goddess, also known as cosmic STD's) Miquella (Very lucifer figure who is beloved by everyone and eternal Jail bait if you ask Mogh) and all but confirmed Melina. The only one's that really break this naming convention are Mohg and Morgott the omen twins, whom are part of the golden lineage. Other than the omen twins if they got an M to start their name then they're likely Marika + Radagon, if they got a G to start their name it's golden time, if they've got an R to start their name it's Redheads + Goth Witch = the best so fight me.
Miquella is quite a mysterious fella. For example, he’s the only male empyrean that we know of and he’s the only empyrean that doesn’t have a obvious god behind him. My theory is that Malenia’s and Miquella’s births being vulnerable meant that other outer gods influenced their births giving him a similar situation as Malenia. I believe the Outer God influencing his curse is the formless mother but similarly to Malenia, is resisting her influence. Perhaps he also is communicating with another outer god in his sleep, after all cut content shows that him and St. Trina (a patron of sleep with potential connections to the sea) were the same and still share similarities for example both of their flowers are water lilies. My working theory on them is that perhaps they will work like Marika and Radagon as we still know little about Miquella and his personal life.
Would love to see you two react to the prepare to cry about the 'frenzied flame' it's a beautiful video from Vati and I think you'd like it a lot. Great stuff from you guy's as always.
The frustrating similarities of all of the names is how you know that George R. R. Martin wrote for this game. You even named a character from House of the Dragon when you were trying to remember one of the Elden Ring characters.
If you want to see life breathed into some characters, watch the prepare to Cry episode about morgott. It tells his tragic story and gives more humanity to characters.
I think describing elden ring as a text book is actually extremely accurate. Some things are explicitly told, but most are from item descriptions and voice lines, even then the meaning has to be interpreted. Locations also tell a story, but its not said. The environment is a big one, but you have to play and experience by wandering around looking at place names and piecing things together.
Funny thing that you mentioned Game Of Thrones,cause the writer for Elden Ring is done by non other than George R.R Martin. He even said that he loved the story and lore of Dark Souls,and Miyazaki called him to write the story and lore for Elden Ring. So that’s why your seeing some Game Of Thrones references here in Elden Ring. There’s even a sword that’s called Grafted Blade Greatsword. It looks just like the Iron Throne from the show itself.
I would highly request watching more of these videos. The lore and everything in elden ring is so good and Vaati is the perfect man to explain it. My personal favorites that I hope you watch one day are The Lord of Frenzied Flame and the Blessing of Despair
I highly recommend looking into the Elden Ring Prepare to Cry. A heads up, the Warrior Within is about a meme in the community. The other two are two of the six endings which he is doing a lore video on each.
Indeed as many pointed out, Elden Ring was created with George R. R. Martin who made Game of Thrones/House of Dragon. And it definitely shows with this game. But Miyazuki deserves praise to cuz he knows how to make characters. This game really is incredible
Please please watch the prepare to cry series its actually amazing. i recommend the lord of frenzied flame to start it feels like a story not just a lore dump.
The thing I think I enjoy the most about the Souls games and their lore is you can very clearly see where History was rewritten. You can connect the dots and find the points where one ruling party who has conquered or taken over has written history to suit their views; but, it's impossible for them to completely erase. As an example the "Curse" of the Omens. The fact it's called a curse and treated as one, however, if you go looking you can clearly see it's only considered a Curse in the view of the Golden Order. Before the Golden Order and even in it's earliest days the budding horns, scales, wings, feathers, tails were considered sacred and divine and only changed once the Greater Will had cemented it's control.
Vaati's stuff is rather good if a little long, though it does go into the lore pretty well. Myself, I hope the next dlc offer you a chance to get a new ending and save malenia and millennia by the game acknowledging you have the needle fully powered up after using it on yourself to avoid the chaos ending.
I'm glad you brought up Game of Thrones because I believe the creator worked on this game, so there are most definitely some elements in the game from Game of Thrones.
The captivating wonder of the fromsoftware crafted worlds, is the unknown stories or legends. Its not through experiencing an enemy's backstory by having a bunch of cutscenes or written stuff or immense dialogue with a bunch of spoonfed storytelling. It's the pieces that are missing that let you connect your own ideas to what possibly happened, as all the fromsoft games are occurring a large amount of time in the future after all these legends were created or fell for you to create your own legend through your character. These legends aren't told to us, but by exploring the lands around us, you see their evident touch on the world through the areas and enemies that follow them and even items you find. Fromsoft's ability to have any persons creativity turn into more creativity through vague and self reliant storytelling is true artwork. I don't think a tv show could do it much justice
Miquella and Malenja are inspiring Lore. And I am heart warmed about them. They where born from a single god yet inflicted since birth they tried everything to cure there sickness and even the order they devoted was not of help. So they decided to take there matters into there own. And there achievements for they are Twins proves the more of there Harf work not for themselves but for each other.
There's a lot of lore that we don't have yet (That will hopefully be revealed when the dlc comes out) and one of my favorite pieces has to do with the "Gloam-eyed queen/The dusk-eyed queen" there is a group of incantations called "black flame incantations" they do fire damage and apply a damage over time effect based on the health of the enemy (the more health the more damage) from item descriptions like the Godslayers greatsword, we know that the gloam eyed queen was once an Empyrean who held the rune of destined death before Malekith. She was also the queen of the godskin apostles and nobles (Miniboss enemies who use blackflame and wear the skin of gods as armor) another thing we know is that she created black flame using destined death to create a godslaying blackflame, when Malekith took destined death from her the blackflame weakened a lot. there is a big theory that Melina The kindling maiden was the gloam eyed queen, not only because she was named the kindling maiden but also because the gloam eyed queen is said to be an empyrean (which would make sense since Melina is the daughter of Marika) but also you can find Melinas weapon (The blade of calling) and the weapon art is very similar to the weapon "The black knife" which uses destined death as it was the blade of a black knife assassin (The ones responsible for stealing a part of the rune of death) Hopefully when the dlc comes out we get more info about Miquella and godwyn, and of course the Gloam eyed queen.
I recommend the Tarnished Archeologist RUclips channel for more of a in depth look and explanation of the histories of the lands and peoples of Elden Ring. Very digestible and is on the fore-front of lore and lore related theories. EDIT: Addendum; a playlist I recommend is his one about the Empires of the Lands Between. It is comprehensive of the past and sheds lights on the past of Marika.
Vaati is perfect for getting the basic lore knowledge down. If they ever want to go into the deeper parts of the iceberg, though... I'd rather recommend Hawkshaw.
@@elias.t Yeah basic. I specifically said if they want to go deeper they can try one of the recommended videos. I think his theories which are given credence by real world events that likely to no doubt are the inspiration to the events and characters of the game. As well as he looks at the in game archeology which when given context explains some well hidden bits of lore.
You should check out this video that’s all about the omen curse, the misbegotten and a specific ending of the game: VaatiVidya’s Prepare to cry: The blessing of Despair
6:10 “Horns, scales, and feathers used to grow in the human body and were considered signifies of the divine, now they are disdained as impurities as civilization advanced”. Eventually, these once holy traits were regarded as taboo, and all of which have manifested on the corpse of Godwyn the golden, (prince of death, first demigod to die, inheritor of the rune of death) as he lie dead under the Erdtree. 22:26 Melenia was fighting for Miquella, to protect him while he grew his haligtree. But while she was fighting Radahn, Mohg broke into the haligtree and kidnapped Miquella to become his empyrean vessel for the blood god. (From my understanding).
I can't wait for the Max0r Elden Ring video, And I also can't wait for more Vaati (Especially the "Star Episode" ssh) So much cool content on the way!!!
You guys should watch all of the cutscenes. It gives you a good look into what each demigod is like at the current present times in which the players journey takes place
in order to learn about Rennala, you might need to look into the Astrologer class and also, the relationship they had with the mountaintop giants: eventualy, the study of stars became the use of the power of the stars to fashion changes in reality known as glinstone magic. In Rennala's case, she was a girl astrologer like any of the Carian family but eventualy her gazing up led to finding the full moon, even creating a sect of sorceres that believes the study of the moon as important as the stars and she passed that to her daughter Ranni, who found the Dark Moon. Knowing the Carian family has their fate in the stars, its interesting that the nox of the Eternal City were in search of the lord of their dark moon and so desperate that they attempted to ''create'' a lord through alchemy, but here after so long we have someon who pocess power over the dark moon that caused the shattering and potentially the end the nox people wanted: The Age of the Stars
Nice timing! Vaati just uploaded a very interesting video about miquella and speculation about possible future DLC. There’s never been a better time to get into the game, you should give it a try 😉
Yeah, RUclips lore videos on FromSoft games are a lot like sitting through a history lecture, compared to watching a historical TV show. Without the more narrative timeline of causal events, a lot of it sort of muddles together into a large pool of loosely fitted together information that you can't always make heads or tails of unless you played through the game studying all the lore bits and analysing them yourself at least a bit.
About Rennala From the beginning, noxes lived on the lands of Rai Lukaria, the cities that are now underground were also theirs, but then, so far I remember, the monster Astel flew in, who took away the moon from them and drove them underground. Then stars began to fall into lake Liurnia, bringing with them crystal golems and those very stone people - masters of gravitational magic. The Rai Lukaria Academy was built to study the "magic of the stars". but then Rennala appeared, who was chosen by an outer god, the personification of which was the new moon, and began to crush the academy under her (there were enough of those in the academy who did not like Rennala). Then Rennala raised her family as the greater will got strong enough(its influence on this particular world) and wished for expansion. Marika's first husband went to north to fight against the giants and their god of fire, and Radagon went to lake Liurnia, where he met Rennala in battles, fell in love and married her under the pretext of "no war". Ranni, as a petty prankster, found the former moon of the Noxes (as well as the Noxes themselves, I suspect) and began to study it. Rennala understood that the greater will did not approve of the Noxes and everything connected with them, so she created a puppet - Renna(Rennala), who began to teach Ranni ice magic and distract her daughter from deepening into the topic of Noxes. Then Radagon left Rennala and Renni lost both her mother and her teacher. Then Ranni made contact with Marika, who had already lost Melina by that time, which was a tool(call it otherwise if you wish) for creating weapons against the greater will and a part of its manifestation in the Land between(the golden order) - she studied two things that the greater will was most afraid of - the flame of the giants and the rune of death. Ranni made contact with Marika when she was already preparing to break the ring. Ranni wasn't very happy with the golden order also, and her mother's madness didn't help at all(what was fully the greater will fault). It was then that she deprived herself of her body in order to escape the influence of a greater will and fall out of the race for the throne. I deeply studied the subject long ago so could forget something but have tried to make right accents.
I imagine the reason why Malenia challenged Radahn in the first place was likely due to that outer god. I think it was probably whispering in her ear to, you know as I would say "Dew it." She reluctantly agreed so she challenged him. I think the Outer god knew she was no match for Radahn but wanted to put her into a situation where she's cornered and has no choice but to rely on her rot to win. She couldn't just run away because she's a proud and prideful warrior.
I love that you guys are interested in the lore of these games, but ESPECIALLY with Elden Ring, it gets *real* complicated. It's almost as though Elden Ring fit the equivalent of the entirety of Dark Souls' lore - 3 games in total spanning countless ages - into a single game. As an aside, though, I'd like to posit a counterpoint to Bethany's explanation for wanting a film/series adaptation: While it can portray a good deal of subtext, there's also a *huge* amount of subtext you can actually get from the games! There's more of an action orientation to it, sure, but you can learn so much from a character by HOW they act, how they fight! Quick example: Rennala's boss fight. I won't say too much in case you guys decide to give the game a go, but they way the encounter goes, you can tell her heart isn't in the fight. Through things Vaati's mentioned, we know her heart went with Radagon. Yet, through a portion, we still see the majesty of the Queen of the Full Moon as she was before Radagon broke her heart. She was once regal, imposing, and potent in sorcery - now, just a shell of her former self, pining over a lost love through the one gift he left her. And don't even get me STARTED on the subtext you can get from Malenia's fight! Sorry for the short essay, but all of it was to argue that both mediums can do subtext very well, it's just that they have very different *focuses* for that subtext!
I personally like the theory that Radahn conquered the stars out of service of the Greater Will, to prevent the interference of Outer Gods within the Lands Between Just looking at the design of the Elden Beast, it looks a little bit similar to the design of Nyarlathotep in Lovecraftian mythos, and we know FromSoft has dipped their toes in such ideas in the past, cough Bloodborne cough, so the idea of other Outer Gods trying to interfere with the Lands Between, and potentially take them from the Greater Will seems interesting
Well to be fair the Eternal cities are not named eternal cities that's just how the surface people refers to them. One is name Nokron, another Nokstella and the third one is nameless as it was destroyed. and Radhan is the Starscourge so cool enough too
To be fair most ppl come to Vaati to make sense of their journey through the game. So when he comment on something you immediatly have a gameplay moment that come to mind, make sense that it doesn't connect as much without that part.
Radahn is my favorite, his mind tainted from Malenia's rot, and he still holds back the stars and only wants an honorable battle in his own festival, Radahn truly deserved his title of Starscourge general, plus, he only learned gravitational magic just so he could continue riding his little horse, Leonard! He is a great lad.
Also don't forget he pretty much won against malania in combat and was seen as a big enough threat to bloom her scarlet rot which severely weakened and crippled her to the point where she should've died but it was thanks to her clean rot knights (Finley I think?) That dragged her out of Caelid to heal. So by default radahn won and is probably the strongest of the demi god children
@@geraldthegoose1685 Where does it say he won against Malenia in combat? The Aeonian sword monument says they were locked in stalemate before the scarlet bloom. The scarlet bloom is what ended their fight, which resulted in a stalemate. Finlay rescued Malenia after the fight was over.
@@fingolfinofnoldor3592 I know I meant in the sense that he forced her to use an attack that she most likely would not want to use unless she was probably gonna lose in which causes radahn to be put on life support while malania was most likely gonna die if not for outside help which is why I said he pretty much won because radahn wouldn't of died by the scarlet rot which is what we see in game. Does that make sense?
The lore on a little of everything is genuinely good and interesting. In fact Miyazaki was purposeful in how he kept it harder to interpret in the same senses of say Game of Thrones, and that different people could conclude something very different from each other. Going through it a lot of details are clear, but by when it truly comes in drastically changes the meaning. In turn lore hunting is a bit of a thing people do trying to tie it in and fill in the gaps for a fuller picture. That's not saying nothing is conclusive, in fact, Godrick, the Grafted very much is a relative of Godfrey, but much weaker to try ascending by attaching power of others to his flesh in desperation. He also fled the capital in a failed attack on it by dressing up as a woman, and hiding amongst the women and children folk.
Here's a quick and simple list of names for each demi-god character to help distinguish an study them: Remember that all offspring of Queen Marika the Eternal are demi-gods. [QUEEN MARIKA & GODFREY, FIRST ELDEN LORD] - Godwyn the Golden (first of the demi-gods to die during The Night of the Black Knives) - Morgott, the Grace-Given, Omen King and Lord of Leyndell - Mohg, Lord of Blood Remember that Morgott and Mohg are cursed Omen twins. [RADAGON OF THE GOLDEN ORDER & RENNALA, QUEEN OF THE FULL MOON] - Starscourge Radahn - Lunar Princess Ranni - Praetor Rykard, Lord of Volcano Manor [RADAGON OF THE GOLDEN ORDER & QUEEN MARIKA THE ETERNAL] - Malenia, Blade of Miquella (Goddess of Rot) - Miquella (cursed with eternal childhood) Melina, the young female who helps guide the player in the game, is the one mentioned by Vaatividya that may be the child of Marika and Radagon as well.
This needs to be a marathon followed by Elden Ring play through. I just cracked 200 hours on the game as I walked up to the final boss fight. I still haven't beaten it yet, but every time I struggled with the game, I would put it down for a month or two, come back, and suddenly be more capable. I think you two are ready, especially if you switch between the two of you any time one person gets burnt out. Sorceries are the easiest play style, incantations look the most badass, heavy or colossal weapons can make the game simple and straightforward, dexterity weapons like katana can be devastating for your enemies, and flails/whips aren't really worth it. Get a good spear and poke your enemies, or summon lighting and knock your foes on their ass. Give the people what they want.
I like how the twin children of Radagon and Marika were afflicted by something horrible, almost like they were products of incest. Also, a dlc should be coming soon, so it will probably provide more lore details we don't know about. And Radahn is such a chad; he learned gravity magic JUST to ride his beloved horse.
Rennala's daughter, Ranni has a questline tied to her in game, one where you enter her service and after helping her slay her own Two Fingers you essentially marry her. Shes the most compassionate of the demigods we can interact with. Miquella would be the only other one that comes close but we dont get to interact with him. Ranni wishes to end the influences of all the outer gods that want to meddle with humanity and exert their control. She wants humanity to control their own fate. Its a path she believed she had to walk alone, but in her ending she realizes she wishes to walk it with you, her "fair consort, eternal." You even get a really cool greatsword as a wedding gift. its the Moonlight Greatsword with a twist that appears in every souls game. The description of the sword tells you its something carian royals would gift to their spouses. Its a tradition to gift one of these upon being wed. You can find Radagon's cast away in a cave somewhere, corrupted by the Golden Order.
You talked about seeing some life breathed into these characters...makes me think yall should watch some Elden Ring cinematics to bring you further into it.
I prefer to think that I killed all the demi gods in the game, and I became a god by slaying the elden beast. (I know it's not lore accurate, but it's fun)
Interesting to see you interested in the elden ring lore even though you havent played the game:-). Although it doesnt make that much of a diference;-)
That’s the cool thing. Playing the game doesn’t mean you get and understand all the lore. You still have to break it down and connect it all like Vaati does 🙂
The funny thing is, you wanna learn more about Marika first hand? So do we, she's almost not in the game, and has not first hand lines. Such is the nature of souls-likes. All of them happen after the big climax, us playing during the kinda 'post apocalypse' as it were.
I hope you guys got to play Elden Ring. The game is difficult, but not nearly as much as the internet would make you believe. Souls games have this overblown reputation of being super hard when they aren't really. They're not easy games, but it's far more about learning and experience than it is about pure skill, so while you might die more times in a souls game than in others, I'd argue those others might be harder. I'm saying this because I too a really long time to get into Dark Souls, I spend many years pushing off the game because I was intimidated by how everyone kept saying it's so hard. Then when I finally picked up DS3 to play it, I found it so much more manageable than I expected and regretted taking so long to try it.
My personal favorite theory on why Marika and radagon are the same person is because originally it was just Marika herself. But because her golden order was struggling to fend themselves against the carians and raya lucarians. And because godwyn and godefrey are both at war against the dragons and giants. She had no choice but to split herself and create another male counterpart to help her lead the battle against the Carians or rather Renalla as she was the queen of caria and raya lucaria. But after another war that lead to a stalemate. Marika decided to switch up her strategy. That is she would let radagon seduce renalla. To the point where she would completely break if radagon ever betrayed her. And so the two sides came to a truce and renalla and radagon married while having three children together. However there is one problem. That is radagon being split from Marika was also Marikas own faith. Radagon was the embodiment of her faith. Therefore before long Marika began to doubt everything. Even her own consort, godefrey and his tarnished warriors. So in hope that they would get stronger. She banished them away from the lands between to be in a world of death. Hoping eventually they would return stronger having overcomed the hardships of the outside world. And before long Marika began severely doubting the greater will. So after her beloved son godwyn was slain. She had lost all faith in the golden order and smashed the elden ring either in grief or spite. So the theory where radagon was the embodiment of Marikas faith aligns with the final boss cutscene where you can see radagon desperately trying to fix the elden ring as he had every faith in the greater will while Marika hung there almost accepting her fate.
So because you brought Game of Thrones up and George R. R. Martin did aided in writing the lore for Elding Ring just saying. Hope you all have a great start to this year. STAY SAFE and have a great day. 👍
![The Complete Story of Destiny! From origins to Shadowkeep [Timeline and Lore explained]](/img/1.gif)
Fun fact: Mohg is actually the one who kidnapped Miquella, seeking to use the Empyrean blood of his half-brother to fashion his own dynasty of gods, possibly even having been accidently bewitched by Miquella's enchanting aura. His palace of blood lays directly below Caelid... Radahn's domain, and the sight where Radahn and Malenia had their fateful battle, so there's a common theory that Malenia knew WHERE Miquella was, but not who took him, bringing her into conflict with her stepbrother and ultimately leading to the fate of everyone involved. And where better for a Lord of Blood to build his palace than under a warzone, where it can all trickle down and empower him? It's my theory that Mohg is one of the biggest masterminds in the whole story, who often goes overlooked in analysis of the greater events of the story.
I remember reading a description that said that Mogh planted fake clues that pointed to Radhan to weaken the 2 most powerful demygods
Wasn’t Miquella taken by Mohg after Malenia left? That’s why Mohg was able to take him to begin with.
@@nosir7882this is correct. I don’t know what they are talking about
@@nosir7882 i think he did It while was sleepin
Mohg the puppet master 😯
Malenia is considered the toughest boss because she heals herself every time she hits you, and as you saw, she has one attack that can hit you like 12 times in about 4 seconds.
Oh damn 😯😨😱
@@DefinitelyNotDefinitiveGames you should react to her boss fight...also for reference, I've not beaten her yet and I've fought her over at least 20 times maybe even thirty. And I don't always get her down below half health
@@jacthing1 Took me about 50~ to beat her my first time. What helped me was that I never hyperfocused on beating her, I mean, I was never going at it full brute force trying to win at any cost. I just wanted to learn how to deal with her moves, so dying never frustrated me. And boy, let me tell ya, it's such a rush when you can consistently dodge Waterfowl Dance. At some point it legit becomes a choreography, I bet that's how Let Me Solo Her must feel.
and yet, fromsoft went ahead and made her rune to be the most useless...
34:35 Radahn is actually also known as the "Starscourge" which is just as cool a title in my opinion
Yup. That’s a great nickname 😁
One thing I really like about from software's characters is that rarely do we get characters that are pure good or pure evil.
The majority of characters are morally grey and have their own faults and redeeming qualities.
However when we do get pure evil villians in souls games, they're really damn good!
Like Pontiff Sulyvahn from dark souls or Mohg in elden ring.
Pontiff was such an ass with his combos as is Mogh with his Delayed roll catch and f-king Heal
@@moonrabbit2334 pontiff was hard, but after ER and it's bosses, he was a piece of cake
As for Mohg, I love the fight. I think he's one of the very few fights where delayed attacks make sense, because instead of seeming like the boss is just holding his attack, Mohg looks like he's having a hard time swinging that massive weapon.
@@Waltarwhiet nihil, Nihil, NIHIL!!!
Mohg is a pure evil?
@@1asts1eep can’t name a single positive thing Moghs done. Built a dynasty around killing Maidens and other tarnished, kidnapped Miquella and ditched the golden order which may or may not be evil depending on how you look at it
Radahn is an absolute badass, and fighting him was the most glorious battle ive ever taken part in
😎🤟
no fight more glorious than godfrey
Given that George R.R Martin wrote the lore of the game with director Hidetaka Miyazaki, the idea of a Game of Thrones-style adaptation is an interesting one. Just imagine a medieval/mythological socio-political thriller with these living legends, covering the events from the coronation of Marika, through the Shattering, right up to the summoning of the Tarnished that begins the game.
It does conflict with the environmental storytelling that gives these games their identity, but of all the games FromSoftware has gifted us, Elden Ring might be easiest to adapt (that or Sekiro). Like how Fire and Blood exists in relation to A Song of Ice and Fire.
Wonder if that was part of the reason for bringing in GRRM 🤔😀
@Definitely Not Definitive - Games It's quite possible. Soulsborne is known for having so many multi-layered characters reminiscent of those in Martin's work, so for such an ambitious project (their first open world game), working with a renowned author of similar style is a logical choice that worked so well.
If an adaptation were really to take place BEFORE the events of the game, as you said, from the coronation to the Shattering, I don't see the obvious lack of enviromental storytelling being a problem. Since it's telling something we didn't actually see it happening and events that surely holds the interest of everyone who played the game, that would be fantastic. However, if they'd opt to adapt the the main journey of from the game, with the Tarnished being the protagonist, I don't see how it could work and we'd feel the lack of enviromental storytelling much more.
I enjoyed Dark Souls and Elden Ring for the exploration, challenge and a vague "weird factor", but I could never connect with the story at all because the presentation was so scattered and impersonal. Seeing an attempted adaptation in a non-interactive medium would be interesting, even if I probably wouldn't enjoy it.
@i That is a good point. I think it's the enduring mysteries (e.g. Miquella, the exact nature of Marika-Radagon's duality) in some of the lore that made me feel like an adaptation would be a challenge, but imagination is a powerful thing in the right direction, and it's still possible, even best, to leave some things a mystery while telling a strong narrative.
Malenia considers Miquela to be the most fearsome of demi-gods.
If there's a DLC where we get to fight him, I would be terrified of what that would be like.
Fearsome doesn't mean strongest.
Miquella isn't blessed with might, but with mind.
That, and I doubt FromSoft would make us fight a (demigod with the appearance of a) child.
@@Danganraptor imagine fighting a prime adult miquella, now that would be scary
@@fakeblue8985 And near impossible, considering his curse. That said, it'd be interesting to see how they'd impliment his charisma into his boss fight.
@@Danganraptor It would almost certainly never happen, although he did almost break the curse (just take a look at the size of him in the egg) and I'd assume that the whole "charisma" thing would probably be something to prevent the player from just getting up in his face and absolutely wailing on him, considering that it's an aura he exudes
I always love Beth's takes on these things. i completely agree, Miyazaki just has a way of making these characters so incredibly interesting through literally just backstory and item descriptions.
Miquella is definitely my favorite. to me it seems like he was "the guy" to fix everythinh before he got kidnapped by Mohg
Aww, glad you enjoy my takes ☺️🤗🥰
Ranni and Marika are two of the most interesting characters fromsoft has ever created. They're both so entrenched in conspiracy and plotting that most of many major plot points can be linked directly to one or even both of them. Can't wait to see you check out more!
We look forward to seeing more as well 😀
Radahn is cool, but i gotta love the tragedy of Morgott and Malenia. Honestly there aint a bad one in the line up save maybe Rykard (although he's still entertaining)
*ahem*
Mohg exists. I'd say he's pretty bad.
@@Danganraptor Mogh is pretty bad, but at least I can sympathise with him given the whole 'locked up in the sewers for daring to be born wrong' thing
@@freewillgeorge You know he also "shared every inch of his bedchamber" with Miquella, right?
@@Danganraptor didn't say he's a good dude, just that I can at least sympathise :P
@@freewillgeorge I can't.
*LONG POST WARNING*
Ranni is my favorite of the demigods in Elden Ring (followed by Malenia, because I am also an older sibling), and her ending is perhaps the only ending that can be described as the "good" ending in Elden Ring (the others are either kind of anticlimactic or just plain evil).
Ranni's quest involves the player choosing to enter her service to help her achieve her destiny, which involves severing her connection to the Greater Will and freeing her from its influence. That's why she placed her soul into the body of a doll and had her body killed, so her actions would be entirely her own. Part of this quest has you traveling with the doll that contains Ranni's soul, and you learn that she actually cares deeply for the people around her, mainly Blaidd (basically her bodyguard) and Iji (the troll blacksmith at 12:20), but she feels like she's being forced to walk this path alone. That is, until she meets you.
At the end of her quest line, Ranni has successfully killed her own set of Two Fingers (every demigod has one) and freed herself of the Greater Will's control. In a secret bit of dialogue (that was actually mistranslated from Japanese, so here's the true meaning), she says that her plan is to free The Lands Between from the influence of all the Outer Gods, creating a new Age of Stars that will eventually allow mortals to choose their own fate rather than be at the mercy of an Outer God. After finishing the game, Ranni proclaims that she's going on a thousand-year voyage across the stars, and she invites you to come with her, saying, "Well then. Shall we? My fair consort eternal." But if you experience that secret dialogue, she will instead say, "Let us go together. My dear consort eternal." In the end, Ranni no longer is forced to walk this path alone. She will set the world free from the gods and embark on a voyage across the stars with the man/woman she loves (at least, if you interpret it that way, which I do).
So, yeah. This was my super long way of describing how the best ending in Elden Ring is the one where you marry a witch, banish the gods from the world, and go on a voyage through space. If you actually stuck around, thank you for taking the time to read this! It means a lot!
Isn't the whole undeath Ranni's fault? Killing her brother who was a hero to all and because of that caused everyone to suffer?
@@greekjohn1998 the entire circumstances of that are unclear, she absolutely did set it up but there are plenty of theories that marika was behind all that, and if the reading is that she is trying to rid the lands between of the influence of outer gods then it could have all been a part of her plan to eventually exile the greater will, it kind of depends on lots of other context which can be viewed in v different ways, i think ranni is just extremely pragmatic and wants freedom for all things at any cost, even if that cost is killing her brother and causing the deathblight
@@willowhealy453 Well, she does want freedom but for herself only from the greater will, she wants to have the stars and moon to rule maybe with her as a God, quite different than having no outer gods influence. Miquela is the one who wants the no outer gods influence. As for Marika, it's only implied, but I think that theory does have a strong foundation. But we need more lore on Marika to know for certain.
Yeah, that's why you like them lol
@@greekjohn1998 undeath was a side effect of ranni's plans. it only caused some to suffer if their revival got corrupted. everyone graced by the erdtree is technically immortal, as their souls are bound and they will revive due to the erdtree. with the destruction of the erdtree, those who live in death are also freed, and ranni gets to banish the golden outer god
Lunar princess Ranni has one of the best stories in the game, in my opinions. She, along with Malenia e Miquella are the coolest demigods
Lots of love for Ranni 😀
Facts!
Always find it so cool Radahn held back all the stars in the galaxy
😎🤟
The names of the demigods sort of follow a system referring to their parentage. All the children born from Radagon and Rennala have names starting with R, so Ranni, Radahn, and Rykard. The ones of the "true" Golden Lineage born from Marika and Godfrey have "God" in their names. He only talked about Godwyn in this video, but there is also some later decendants called Godefroy and Godrick. The M names are a bit more muddled. They're split between the husbands. Mohg and Morgott being Marika and Godfreys children, while Miquella and Malenia are Marika and Radagons children.
I like all the demigods and the lore surrounding them, but as someone who has been diving deep in it for a while I think Miquella is the most intriguing to me simply because he is the most mysterious at this moment. I suspect we'll get more of him in an upcoming DLC since he's the only demigod we haven't met. Godwyn is very interesting to me for the same reason, but we know how his story has kind of settled him as a god of death after what happend during the shattering. Godwyn and Miquella have some interesting connections to each other actually despite having different fathers. Miquella refers to Godwyn as his most beloved brother in the description of a golden sword.
The story there also involves Ranni the Carian Princess alot since she kind of killed Godwyns soul in order to let her own flesh die while her soul remains. Thats why Rannis body is a blue doll, thats the vessel of her soul after she had her own flesh killed in order to escape the influence of the Golden Order. Godwyn died the opposite death as a result of this, his body lived on while his soul perished, turning him into some malformed representation of unnatural death which spreads the death blight throughout the lands. In every corner of the Lands Between you can find the corruption of black roots surrounding stangant water. This is what causes the undead to rise in all the crypts and graveyards.
Miquella is trying to help his half brother Godwyn die a true death so that the Lands Between can be saved from the spreading blight, just like he's trying to halt his sisters Scarlet Rot so that she might live without turning everything into a rotten hellhole where only insectoid creatures may survive.
Miquella was doing alot of good things apparently, until he was kidnapped by his other half brother Mohg. Mohg is the omen brother who embraced his cursed blood. His relationship with Miquella is a weird and creepy one, because he wants to make Miquella the new god, but he wants to make sure he himself can be his consort so that he can enforce an Age of Blood in service of his blood god called the Formless Mother. Miquella is seen as a perfect match for this since Miquella is not only cursed with eternal youth, but he is also kind of blessed with abundance.
Like Vaati mentioned, Miquella watered his great tree with his own blood, he could do that because he apparently has endlessly flowing blood. His statues are depicted with thick veins on his arms to represent this. But thats perfect for a crazy guy who worships bloodloss. Thats the thing about the Formless Mother, she doesn't care about blood alone, she specifically rewards bloodloss.
So Mohg kidnapped Miquella before Miquella could do all the good things he intended to do. Ever since then Mohg has rested inside the blood of Miquella whos inside his cocoon, it looks kinda like a silk moth cocoon. We haven't seen or heard from Miquella after that since we the player draw Mohg out of there and kill him. Miquella might be very different from how he once was if we meet him in a DLC.
Miquellas imagry seems to reference the manga Berserk a bit, specifically the character Griffith. But if thats the character they took inspiration from when writing Miquellas story then he definately won't be a good dude when he finally hatches from his cocoon.
Regarding the Vaati videos, the upcoming ones are my favorites. This one and the previous one are more like history books, while the next ones are more hyperfocused and narrative driven. Speciically "The Warrior Within", "The Lord of the Frenzied Flame", "The Blessing of Despair", and his newest one about the mages like the Carians called "The Lore of the Elden Ring's Cosmic Sorcerers".
Slight clarification (I won't go so far as to say correction, I think it just wasn't said clearly)-Godefroy and Godrick were in fact most likely descendants of Godwyn, not direct children of Godfrey and Marika.
@@carlhausman8157 Indeed, I did refer to them as later decendants, but I guess the previous line made that a bit confusing.
Thanks so much for all this info and for helping us with the names as well. 😀 Will be cool to see the next videos if they have more of a narrative feel to them 🙂
Radahn is a true Chad.
When you fight him you can summon 6 NPCs and do so unlimited. He’s fighting all these people while using gravity magic to hold back the starts WHILE using gravity magic to hold his horse up, WHILE ALSO being crazy.
Fighting him in his prime would be impossible
Damn 🤯
The theory that Melina is possibly Ranni is a cool one as well. They both have their eyes closed, Ranni having a "twin" that matches Melina. Both are the only ones familiar with Torrent also. Some believe that similar to Radagon and Marika being the same person, Melina and Ranni are also the same.
Isn't Melina also Marika, or at least partly? - i.e. the offspring of her and Radagon
Edit: I watched the video, didn't expect it to be mentioned in this one
I believe this theory. Mostly because of their matching but mirrored eye tattoos.
I think perhaps not her twin, but her reflection. If Ranni is the Dark Moon, icy and cold. Melina is the Sun, she is the kindling, the inferno. And that’s why she hunts you in the Frenzied Flame ending
I kinda believe that too because when you first meet Ranni, she requests to see Torrent. Seeing how he stood by Melina (who could be Ranni's former master who influenced Ranni's current puppet), it would make sense that Ranni would request this to ensure that her interactions are with approved/accredited people (being you, the tarnished accredited by torrents trust)
But Melina opens her other eye during the frenzied flame ending and it's clearly different from Ranni's eye
For names you can see it as almost a puzzle, one that has a learning curve but once you get, it's easy.
You've got the G & M Family, also known as the golden lineage.
Godfrey (The Chad Dad)
Marika (Goddess Dearest)
Godwyn (How to train your dragon)
(Godefrey and Godrick are also members of this lineage but more so decendents, so lesser gods than truly demigods, likely from the naming convention descendants of Godwyn)
You got the R family.
Radagon (Pre-fusion of Marika, Daddy)
Rennala (Mommy, Put all her stats into Int and yet still couldn't see that boy was no good for her.)
Ranni (Waifu bait simulator, tricking fools to her ending one copy of elden ring at a time for her darkmoon god.)
Rykard(Fiercest contender to most screwed individual in the game with Mohg. He also likes snakes and blasphemy, and is a real family man.)
Radahn (Scourge of the stars, the Red Lion, lover of scrawny horses and bestest of bois)
Then you've got the Empyrean children of R and M
Marika
Radagon
Malenia(Rot Goddess, also known as cosmic STD's)
Miquella (Very lucifer figure who is beloved by everyone and eternal Jail bait if you ask Mogh)
and all but confirmed Melina.
The only one's that really break this naming convention are Mohg and Morgott the omen twins, whom are part of the golden lineage. Other than the omen twins if they got an M to start their name then they're likely Marika + Radagon, if they got a G to start their name it's golden time, if they've got an R to start their name it's Redheads + Goth Witch = the best so fight me.
Thanks so much! This was super helpful 🙂
Miquella is quite a mysterious fella. For example, he’s the only male empyrean that we know of and he’s the only empyrean that doesn’t have a obvious god behind him. My theory is that Malenia’s and Miquella’s births being vulnerable meant that other outer gods influenced their births giving him a similar situation as Malenia. I believe the Outer God influencing his curse is the formless mother but similarly to Malenia, is resisting her influence. Perhaps he also is communicating with another outer god in his sleep, after all cut content shows that him and St. Trina (a patron of sleep with potential connections to the sea) were the same and still share similarities for example both of their flowers are water lilies. My working theory on them is that perhaps they will work like Marika and Radagon as we still know little about Miquella and his personal life.
Miquella is also said to have had a Great Rune shard of the Elden Ring. I think it was called the Great Rune of Abundance.
Would love to see you two react to the prepare to cry about the 'frenzied flame' it's a beautiful video from Vati and I think you'd like it a lot. Great stuff from you guy's as always.
Look forward to checking that out 😅
Easily one of the best videos he ever made, it's just like watching a movie and covers one of the most interesting storylines of the game.
It's so haunting and the music mixed with the perfect editing by Vati is amazing. The song of despair is truly great.
The frustrating similarities of all of the names is how you know that George R. R. Martin wrote for this game. You even named a character from House of the Dragon when you were trying to remember one of the Elden Ring characters.
I haven’t watched the whole thing yet but I’m scared for when they get to learning about Mohg
He doesn't touch on THAT part of Mohg in this so don't worry
Luckily he only touches on his past not the questionable actions he took
If you want to see life breathed into some characters, watch the prepare to Cry episode about morgott. It tells his tragic story and gives more humanity to characters.
ruclips.net/video/nvTM03_8elE/видео.html
Thanks for the vid recommendation 🙂
I think describing elden ring as a text book is actually extremely accurate. Some things are explicitly told, but most are from item descriptions and voice lines, even then the meaning has to be interpreted. Locations also tell a story, but its not said. The environment is a big one, but you have to play and experience by wandering around looking at place names and piecing things together.
34:42 star killer sounds nice and cool but STARSCOURGE is some ruthless sounding shite imo
Funny thing that you mentioned Game Of Thrones,cause the writer for Elden Ring is done by non other than George R.R Martin. He even said that he loved the story and lore of Dark Souls,and Miyazaki called him to write the story and lore for Elden Ring.
So that’s why your seeing some Game Of Thrones references here in Elden Ring. There’s even a sword that’s called Grafted Blade Greatsword. It looks just like the Iron Throne from the show itself.
I would highly request watching more of these videos. The lore and everything in elden ring is so good and Vaati is the perfect man to explain it.
My personal favorites that I hope you watch one day are The Lord of Frenzied Flame and the Blessing of Despair
We will for sure be checking out more 😀
I highly recommend looking into the Elden Ring Prepare to Cry. A heads up, the Warrior Within is about a meme in the community. The other two are two of the six endings which he is doing a lore video on each.
Indeed as many pointed out, Elden Ring was created with George R. R. Martin who made Game of Thrones/House of Dragon. And it definitely shows with this game. But Miyazuki deserves praise to cuz he knows how to make characters. This game really is incredible
😎👍🤩
10:44 You could also watch more about Astel and the Falling Star Beasts.
Radahn and Morgott are definitely my favorite demigods in elden ring both gameplay and lore
😎🤟
I truly recommend a video called "el descenso de elden ring", is a video on Spanish but is one of the best explaining deep elden ring lore
Would love to watch a video of you guys reacting to a compilation of Malenia deaths (someday). Or just all the boss fights. ^^
Please please watch the prepare to cry series its actually amazing. i recommend the lord of frenzied flame to start it feels like a story not just a lore dump.
2 videos in and we're barely scratching the surface. I love your reactions!
The thing I think I enjoy the most about the Souls games and their lore is you can very clearly see where History was rewritten. You can connect the dots and find the points where one ruling party who has conquered or taken over has written history to suit their views; but, it's impossible for them to completely erase. As an example the "Curse" of the Omens. The fact it's called a curse and treated as one, however, if you go looking you can clearly see it's only considered a Curse in the view of the Golden Order. Before the Golden Order and even in it's earliest days the budding horns, scales, wings, feathers, tails were considered sacred and divine and only changed once the Greater Will had cemented it's control.
I REALLY enjoy these longer lore videos, I'd like to see more!😁😁👍
Glad to hear! We will have more coming 🙂🥳
Vaati's stuff is rather good if a little long, though it does go into the lore pretty well.
Myself, I hope the next dlc offer you a chance to get a new ending and save malenia and millennia by the game acknowledging you have the needle fully powered up after using it on yourself to avoid the chaos ending.
Oh I've been waiting on this since the Elden Ring video you guys did about a month ago
My favorite reaction RUclipsrs reacting to my favorite game! One thing's definitive, I'm about to get comfy and watch the whole way through.
I'm glad you brought up Game of Thrones because I believe the creator worked on this game, so there are most definitely some elements in the game from Game of Thrones.
The captivating wonder of the fromsoftware crafted worlds, is the unknown stories or legends. Its not through experiencing an enemy's backstory by having a bunch of cutscenes or written stuff or immense dialogue with a bunch of spoonfed storytelling. It's the pieces that are missing that let you connect your own ideas to what possibly happened, as all the fromsoft games are occurring a large amount of time in the future after all these legends were created or fell for you to create your own legend through your character. These legends aren't told to us, but by exploring the lands around us, you see their evident touch on the world through the areas and enemies that follow them and even items you find. Fromsoft's ability to have any persons creativity turn into more creativity through vague and self reliant storytelling is true artwork. I don't think a tv show could do it much justice
Yes! Love that you guys are getting back to it!
Miquella and Malenja are inspiring Lore. And I am heart warmed about them. They where born from a single god yet inflicted since birth they tried everything to cure there sickness and even the order they devoted was not of help. So they decided to take there matters into there own. And there achievements for they are Twins proves the more of there Harf work not for themselves but for each other.
I’m a week late but I’m so excited you two are doing a reaction to Vaati’s demigod lore video 💯🤙🏻
I would be thrilled to see you guys react to more Vaati!
There's a lot of lore that we don't have yet (That will hopefully be revealed when the dlc comes out) and one of my favorite pieces has to do with the "Gloam-eyed queen/The dusk-eyed queen" there is a group of incantations called "black flame incantations" they do fire damage and apply a damage over time effect based on the health of the enemy (the more health the more damage) from item descriptions like the Godslayers greatsword, we know that the gloam eyed queen was once an Empyrean who held the rune of destined death before Malekith. She was also the queen of the godskin apostles and nobles (Miniboss enemies who use blackflame and wear the skin of gods as armor) another thing we know is that she created black flame using destined death to create a godslaying blackflame, when Malekith took destined death from her the blackflame weakened a lot. there is a big theory that Melina The kindling maiden was the gloam eyed queen, not only because she was named the kindling maiden but also because the gloam eyed queen is said to be an empyrean (which would make sense since Melina is the daughter of Marika) but also you can find Melinas weapon (The blade of calling) and the weapon art is very similar to the weapon "The black knife" which uses destined death as it was the blade of a black knife assassin (The ones responsible for stealing a part of the rune of death) Hopefully when the dlc comes out we get more info about Miquella and godwyn, and of course the Gloam eyed queen.
I recommend the Tarnished Archeologist RUclips channel for more of a in depth look and explanation of the histories of the lands and peoples of Elden Ring. Very digestible and is on the fore-front of lore and lore related theories. EDIT: Addendum; a playlist I recommend is his one about the Empires of the Lands Between. It is comprehensive of the past and sheds lights on the past of Marika.
Vaati is perfect for getting the basic lore knowledge down. If they ever want to go into the deeper parts of the iceberg, though... I'd rather recommend Hawkshaw.
@@elias.t Yeah basic. I specifically said if they want to go deeper they can try one of the recommended videos. I think his theories which are given credence by real world events that likely to no doubt are the inspiration to the events and characters of the game. As well as he looks at the in game archeology which when given context explains some well hidden bits of lore.
I love vaatividya’s elden ring lore videos
You should check out this video that’s all about the omen curse, the misbegotten and a specific ending of the game: VaatiVidya’s Prepare to cry: The blessing of Despair
6:10
“Horns, scales, and feathers used to grow in the human body and were considered signifies of the divine, now they are disdained as impurities as civilization advanced”.
Eventually, these once holy traits were regarded as taboo, and all of which have manifested on the corpse of Godwyn the golden, (prince of death, first demigod to die, inheritor of the rune of death) as he lie dead under the Erdtree.
22:26
Melenia was fighting for Miquella, to protect him while he grew his haligtree. But while she was fighting Radahn, Mohg broke into the haligtree and kidnapped Miquella to become his empyrean vessel for the blood god.
(From my understanding).
The Mad Taint of their newfound strenght... Triggered the Shattering.
I can't wait for the Max0r Elden Ring video, And I also can't wait for more Vaati (Especially the "Star Episode" ssh)
So much cool content on the way!!!
Oohhhhh i'm SO ready for another Vaati's videos let's goo
You guys should watch all of the cutscenes. It gives you a good look into what each demigod is like at the current present times in which the players journey takes place
Yeah we will most likely check that out after diving a bit more into lore to Linda get the story 😅
Oh yes, guys you have to do the Elden Ring Prepare to cry series.
😎👍🙂
in order to learn about Rennala, you might need to look into the Astrologer class and also, the relationship they had with the mountaintop giants: eventualy, the study of stars became the use of the power of the stars to fashion changes in reality known as glinstone magic. In Rennala's case, she was a girl astrologer like any of the Carian family but eventualy her gazing up led to finding the full moon, even creating a sect of sorceres that believes the study of the moon as important as the stars and she passed that to her daughter Ranni, who found the Dark Moon. Knowing the Carian family has their fate in the stars, its interesting that the nox of the Eternal City were in search of the lord of their dark moon and so desperate that they attempted to ''create'' a lord through alchemy, but here after so long we have someon who pocess power over the dark moon that caused the shattering and potentially the end the nox people wanted: The Age of the Stars
Finalllyyyyy Elden Ring lore reaction! Love your videos!
LOL I respect you guys trying to embrace Fromsoftware lore because it can be hard to follow even after playing through the game.
Haha, at least we aren’t alone in finding it tough to grasp. But Vaati does a good job and we are starting to digest it more 🙂
Nice timing! Vaati just uploaded a very interesting video about miquella and speculation about possible future DLC. There’s never been a better time to get into the game, you should give it a try 😉
Hooray for Loremaster Vaati reaction!
Yeah, RUclips lore videos on FromSoft games are a lot like sitting through a history lecture, compared to watching a historical TV show.
Without the more narrative timeline of causal events, a lot of it sort of muddles together into a large pool of loosely fitted together information that you can't always make heads or tails of unless you played through the game studying all the lore bits and analysing them yourself at least a bit.
I really wished you guys played it
You should check out Vaati's video on the Lore of Miquella, one of the best ones I think and I've only seen 1 person react to it.
Funny that you considering calling Radahn "Star Killer", because his in-game nick name is "Star Scourge", which is kinda similar.
About Rennala
From the beginning, noxes lived on the lands of Rai Lukaria, the cities that are now underground were also theirs, but then, so far I remember, the monster Astel flew in, who took away the moon from them and drove them underground. Then stars began to fall into lake Liurnia, bringing with them crystal golems and those very stone people - masters of gravitational magic. The Rai Lukaria Academy was built to study the "magic of the stars". but then Rennala appeared, who was chosen by an outer god, the personification of which was the new moon, and began to crush the academy under her (there were enough of those in the academy who did not like Rennala). Then Rennala raised her family as the greater will got strong enough(its influence on this particular world) and wished for expansion. Marika's first husband went to north to fight against the giants and their god of fire, and Radagon went to lake Liurnia, where he met Rennala in battles, fell in love and married her under the pretext of "no war". Ranni, as a petty prankster, found the former moon of the Noxes (as well as the Noxes themselves, I suspect) and began to study it. Rennala understood that the greater will did not approve of the Noxes and everything connected with them, so she created a puppet - Renna(Rennala), who began to teach Ranni ice magic and distract her daughter from deepening into the topic of Noxes. Then Radagon left Rennala and Renni lost both her mother and her teacher. Then Ranni made contact with Marika, who had already lost Melina by that time, which was a tool(call it otherwise if you wish) for creating weapons against the greater will and a part of its manifestation in the Land between(the golden order) - she studied two things that the greater will was most afraid of - the flame of the giants and the rune of death. Ranni made contact with Marika when she was already preparing to break the ring. Ranni wasn't very happy with the golden order also, and her mother's madness didn't help at all(what was fully the greater will fault). It was then that she deprived herself of her body in order to escape the influence of a greater will and fall out of the race for the throne.
I deeply studied the subject long ago so could forget something but have tried to make right accents.
I imagine the reason why Malenia challenged Radahn in the first place was likely due to that outer god. I think it was probably whispering in her ear to, you know as I would say "Dew it." She reluctantly agreed so she challenged him. I think the Outer god knew she was no match for Radahn but wanted to put her into a situation where she's cornered and has no choice but to rely on her rot to win. She couldn't just run away because she's a proud and prideful warrior.
now yall gettin why these kinda games are good, u get a lil lore and it just makes u hunger for more.
I love that you guys are interested in the lore of these games, but ESPECIALLY with Elden Ring, it gets *real* complicated. It's almost as though Elden Ring fit the equivalent of the entirety of Dark Souls' lore - 3 games in total spanning countless ages - into a single game.
As an aside, though, I'd like to posit a counterpoint to Bethany's explanation for wanting a film/series adaptation: While it can portray a good deal of subtext, there's also a *huge* amount of subtext you can actually get from the games! There's more of an action orientation to it, sure, but you can learn so much from a character by HOW they act, how they fight! Quick example: Rennala's boss fight. I won't say too much in case you guys decide to give the game a go, but they way the encounter goes, you can tell her heart isn't in the fight. Through things Vaati's mentioned, we know her heart went with Radagon. Yet, through a portion, we still see the majesty of the Queen of the Full Moon as she was before Radagon broke her heart. She was once regal, imposing, and potent in sorcery - now, just a shell of her former self, pining over a lost love through the one gift he left her. And don't even get me STARTED on the subtext you can get from Malenia's fight!
Sorry for the short essay, but all of it was to argue that both mediums can do subtext very well, it's just that they have very different *focuses* for that subtext!
I personally like the theory that Radahn conquered the stars out of service of the Greater Will, to prevent the interference of Outer Gods within the Lands Between
Just looking at the design of the Elden Beast, it looks a little bit similar to the design of Nyarlathotep in Lovecraftian mythos, and we know FromSoft has dipped their toes in such ideas in the past, cough Bloodborne cough, so the idea of other Outer Gods trying to interfere with the Lands Between, and potentially take them from the Greater Will seems interesting
Well to be fair the Eternal cities are not named eternal cities that's just how the surface people refers to them. One is name Nokron, another Nokstella and the third one is nameless as it was destroyed. and Radhan is the Starscourge so cool enough too
To be fair most ppl come to Vaati to make sense of their journey through the game. So when he comment on something you immediatly have a gameplay moment that come to mind, make sense that it doesn't connect as much without that part.
Merika of Daughter is reference to the Japanese construction of Merika's daughter.
Radahn is my favorite, his mind tainted from Malenia's rot, and he still holds back the stars and only wants an honorable battle in his own festival, Radahn truly deserved his title of Starscourge general, plus, he only learned gravitational magic just so he could continue riding his little horse, Leonard! He is a great lad.
Also don't forget he pretty much won against malania in combat and was seen as a big enough threat to bloom her scarlet rot which severely weakened and crippled her to the point where she should've died but it was thanks to her clean rot knights (Finley I think?) That dragged her out of Caelid to heal. So by default radahn won and is probably the strongest of the demi god children
@@geraldthegoose1685 Where does it say he won against Malenia in combat? The Aeonian sword monument says they were locked in stalemate before the scarlet bloom. The scarlet bloom is what ended their fight, which resulted in a stalemate. Finlay rescued Malenia after the fight was over.
@@fingolfinofnoldor3592 I know I meant in the sense that he forced her to use an attack that she most likely would not want to use unless she was probably gonna lose in which causes radahn to be put on life support while malania was most likely gonna die if not for outside help which is why I said he pretty much won because radahn wouldn't of died by the scarlet rot which is what we see in game. Does that make sense?
@@geraldthegoose1685 He didn't win, but he got the moral victory, you mean?
@@elias.t In a sense yes fellow duck but I also would want to see a rematch in which malenia is rot goddess and radahn isn't holding back the stars
Yeaaa more Vaati videos!
😎🤟🥳
The lore on a little of everything is genuinely good and interesting. In fact Miyazaki was purposeful in how he kept it harder to interpret in the same senses of say Game of Thrones, and that different people could conclude something very different from each other. Going through it a lot of details are clear, but by when it truly comes in drastically changes the meaning. In turn lore hunting is a bit of a thing people do trying to tie it in and fill in the gaps for a fuller picture. That's not saying nothing is conclusive, in fact, Godrick, the Grafted very much is a relative of Godfrey, but much weaker to try ascending by attaching power of others to his flesh in desperation. He also fled the capital in a failed attack on it by dressing up as a woman, and hiding amongst the women and children folk.
Here's a quick and simple list of names for each demi-god character to help distinguish an study them:
Remember that all offspring of Queen Marika the Eternal are demi-gods.
[QUEEN MARIKA & GODFREY, FIRST ELDEN LORD]
- Godwyn the Golden (first of the demi-gods to die during The Night of the Black Knives)
- Morgott, the Grace-Given, Omen King and Lord of Leyndell
- Mohg, Lord of Blood
Remember that Morgott and Mohg are cursed Omen twins.
[RADAGON OF THE GOLDEN ORDER & RENNALA, QUEEN OF THE FULL MOON]
- Starscourge Radahn
- Lunar Princess Ranni
- Praetor Rykard, Lord of Volcano Manor
[RADAGON OF THE GOLDEN ORDER & QUEEN MARIKA THE ETERNAL]
- Malenia, Blade of Miquella (Goddess of Rot)
- Miquella (cursed with eternal childhood)
Melina, the young female who helps guide the player in the game, is the one mentioned by Vaatividya that may be the child of Marika and Radagon as well.
This needs to be a marathon followed by Elden Ring play through. I just cracked 200 hours on the game as I walked up to the final boss fight. I still haven't beaten it yet, but every time I struggled with the game, I would put it down for a month or two, come back, and suddenly be more capable. I think you two are ready, especially if you switch between the two of you any time one person gets burnt out. Sorceries are the easiest play style, incantations look the most badass, heavy or colossal weapons can make the game simple and straightforward, dexterity weapons like katana can be devastating for your enemies, and flails/whips aren't really worth it. Get a good spear and poke your enemies, or summon lighting and knock your foes on their ass. Give the people what they want.
34:39 What about "Starscourge Radah" instead of Star killer?
Yeah it's his actual title😊
Nice 😁
Them watching this before Maxxor's video was a great idea
Saw it was vatti you were reacting to and I had to watch
You need to react to boss cutscenes in this game!!
Can't wait to see them get to the Prepare to Cry Elden Ring stories.
I like how the twin children of Radagon and Marika were afflicted by something horrible, almost like they were products of incest. Also, a dlc should be coming soon, so it will probably provide more lore details we don't know about. And Radahn is such a chad; he learned gravity magic JUST to ride his beloved horse.
Rennala's daughter, Ranni has a questline tied to her in game, one where you enter her service and after helping her slay her own Two Fingers you essentially marry her. Shes the most compassionate of the demigods we can interact with. Miquella would be the only other one that comes close but we dont get to interact with him. Ranni wishes to end the influences of all the outer gods that want to meddle with humanity and exert their control. She wants humanity to control their own fate. Its a path she believed she had to walk alone, but in her ending she realizes she wishes to walk it with you, her "fair consort, eternal." You even get a really cool greatsword as a wedding gift. its the Moonlight Greatsword with a twist that appears in every souls game.
The description of the sword tells you its something carian royals would gift to their spouses. Its a tradition to gift one of these upon being wed. You can find Radagon's cast away in a cave somewhere, corrupted by the Golden Order.
You talked about seeing some life breathed into these characters...makes me think yall should watch some Elden Ring cinematics to bring you further into it.
I prefer to think that I killed all the demi gods in the game, and I became a god by slaying the elden beast.
(I know it's not lore accurate, but it's fun)
Interesting to see you interested in the elden ring lore even though you havent played the game:-).
Although it doesnt make that much of a diference;-)
That’s the cool thing. Playing the game doesn’t mean you get and understand all the lore. You still have to break it down and connect it all like Vaati does 🙂
So Radahn’s full title is StarScourge Radahn. That is very close to StarKiller. XD
Almost all the Demigods have a title.
The funny thing is, you wanna learn more about Marika first hand? So do we, she's almost not in the game, and has not first hand lines. Such is the nature of souls-likes. All of them happen after the big climax, us playing during the kinda 'post apocalypse' as it were.
Radahn nickname is Starscourge :D
Man, Elden Ring has some the most complex lore I’ve seen in a while!
Rivaling that of Dark Souls! 😦
Dark Souls will be another game we dive into 🙂
I hope you guys got to play Elden Ring. The game is difficult, but not nearly as much as the internet would make you believe. Souls games have this overblown reputation of being super hard when they aren't really.
They're not easy games, but it's far more about learning and experience than it is about pure skill, so while you might die more times in a souls game than in others, I'd argue those others might be harder.
I'm saying this because I too a really long time to get into Dark Souls, I spend many years pushing off the game because I was intimidated by how everyone kept saying it's so hard. Then when I finally picked up DS3 to play it, I found it so much more manageable than I expected and regretted taking so long to try it.
Check out the tarnish archeologists dudes awesome
cant wait for you to get into maxors elden ring videos, they are...something
There a very special lore video by vaati. Its called lord of frenzied flame. Hopefully you guys react to it soon! :)
Melina and Ranni share faces.
My personal favorite theory on why Marika and radagon are the same person is because originally it was just Marika herself. But because her golden order was struggling to fend themselves against the carians and raya lucarians. And because godwyn and godefrey are both at war against the dragons and giants. She had no choice but to split herself and create another male counterpart to help her lead the battle against the Carians or rather Renalla as she was the queen of caria and raya lucaria. But after another war that lead to a stalemate. Marika decided to switch up her strategy. That is she would let radagon seduce renalla. To the point where she would completely break if radagon ever betrayed her. And so the two sides came to a truce and renalla and radagon married while having three children together.
However there is one problem. That is radagon being split from Marika was also Marikas own faith. Radagon was the embodiment of her faith. Therefore before long Marika began to doubt everything. Even her own consort, godefrey and his tarnished warriors. So in hope that they would get stronger. She banished them away from the lands between to be in a world of death. Hoping eventually they would return stronger having overcomed the hardships of the outside world. And before long Marika began severely doubting the greater will. So after her beloved son godwyn was slain. She had lost all faith in the golden order and smashed the elden ring either in grief or spite.
So the theory where radagon was the embodiment of Marikas faith aligns with the final boss cutscene where you can see radagon desperately trying to fix the elden ring as he had every faith in the greater will while Marika hung there almost accepting her fate.
Hm, how about doing The (Mostly) Complete Lore of Hollow Knight at some point? That could be interesting.
I recommend doing the Kingdom Hearts: Timeline Series made by Everglow at some point, if you’re interested?
So because you brought Game of Thrones up and George R. R. Martin did aided in writing the lore for Elding Ring just saying. Hope you all have a great start to this year. STAY SAFE and have a great day. 👍